Sex sells and oh boy how! - Square Yards Campaign proves it!

Sex sells and oh boy how! Square Yards the house loaning firm had gone overboard with its below-the-belt campaign.

But it does not come as a surprise. 35 odd years ago the office automation company where I worked came out with a brochure titled "improve your Sec's life".

The company was quite innocent. They meant "improving the life of a secretary (sec) with its office Automation products. If anybody had any other ideas, they had a sick mind!".

Unethical advertising (Part 2)

Disturbing trends are being noticed in the television. Sample this advertisement. This is a advertisemen which shows  a husband’s love for his wife which is measured by the type of pressure cooker that he buys for his wife ( Jo biwi se sachh much karte paar, wo kaise kare Prestige ko inkaar). A mother’s love for her child is measured by her giving permission to let her child drink a number of glasses of a particular soft drink.

Even the jingles smack of unethical standards with

Hero Honda saying – Fill it, shut it, forget it

Colgate: Chota pack – Koola Dabowoh brush pe laga woh

Cadbury – Open pop, roll and chew

Ok soap – Sachh much kafi bada hai

Amul Macho – Ye andar ki bhaat hai

Even the narrative part of TV commercials is also suspect. Check out this TV spot from Godrej for its product – bright Besto.

The commercial depicts a scene in the court. It is a trail scene with one lady saying that her washing powder is costly and buying that powder is being clever (Surf). The other lady says her washing powder is cheap and best (Nirma). A (Godrej) model enters saying her washing powder is cheap at the same time very high in quality. Here comes the crunch the judge says – Faisla aap ke haath mee- the judgment is in your hand. This coming from the judge is surprising as the judge has to deliver a judgment and can’t pass it in to others.

So how do we put an end to unethical advertising?

Make honest claims and do not mislead the consumers. Do not indulge in sales promotion for example not make exaggerated claims regarding free offers and warranty. Claims must be specific about the period of guarantee and the kind of after service offered.

Do not offend generally accepted standards of public decency.

Safeguard against the excessive promotion of products which are regarded as hazardous to society or individuals. It is not clear whether this is prevent for instance the use of advertising to inculcate the habit for eg: advertiserments of smoking among the non smokers. Observe fairness in competition between different brands of the same product or a product and its substitutes.

Unethical advertising prevention is the responsibility of the companies, the advertising agencies and the media. The consumers can also fight this menace by forming consumer groups. The most successful consumer forum in the world was set up by Ralph Nadar named “Public Citizen”. Consumerism can be defined as an organized movement of citizens and government to enhance the rights of and power of buyer in relation to the buyers.

The companies and the agencies should realize that sly headlines, over dramatization, over play of sex, exaggeration and half truths give a bad name to the field of advertising. They should remember “Bad advertising is bad business”

Unethical advertising (Part 1)

Unethical advertising:  is  advertising   which   degrades or underestimates the substitute or the competitive products. It gives false promises or misleading information about the value of the product. It fails to give information about the side effects. It could be advertisements that are obscene or immoral.

The usage of certain words as better, more, best, largest, tastiest, only can change a ethical advertisement into an unethical advertisement.

_________ biscuit that is far more nourishing

India’s tastiest biscuit

Four letter word on wheels – Jeep

A play of words – FCUK is a very popular brand of clothes

Unethical advertising promises something that cannot be delivered like a fitness centre that advertises that the customers will loss of 50 pounds per month with its program. On top of it the fitness centre says the weight loss is guaranteed. Quite plainly the fitness centre can’t deliver that much of weight loss to every person who comes into his centre. Similarly guaranteeing a certain number of years service when the company is closing down that location in the next few months is also an example of unethical advertising.

Sample the following advertisements:

Outside a bank “Nobody likes a fat girl but everybody likes a girl with a fat bank balance”.

For a washing machine “don’t let washing clothes kill your pretty wife. Let our washing machine do that dirty job for you”.

Brochure of an office automation company “Improve your sec’s (secretary’s) life”.

The female anatomy is the most abused in all advertisements. Women’s anatomy is used for products which need not have women advertising for them like blades, cement, shoe polish, alcohol, mosquito coils.

The next area is the dream of every man  - a super physique. Companies exploit this dream by putting out such advertisements as Bullworker that guaranteed a muscular or toned body just by doing some simple exercises. Jeevan Tone is even better. It claims that just by drinking its tonic the buyer can develop a super physique.

Home shopping networks are full of advertisements that claim that becoming thin and  lean is only a few minutes away albeit few minutes a day. My favourite is a contraption that claims that one can lose weight by sleeping. The machine placed under the feet stimulates the feeling of walking and the customer loses weight. Talk about mixing laziness with exercise. This products is a fat person's wildest dream come true. The companies and their advertisements make tall claims but gullible customers do buy these products.

Even big companies stoop to unethical advertising the famous examples can be

A.P Scooters came out in collaboration with Vespa with a scooter and they named it AP PL 170. The customers thought PL 170 meant Pay load 170. Later a lot of negative publicity was generated when the customers came to know that PL 170 does not stand for Pay load 170. PL 170 was just some fancy word work from the advertising agency.

Peico Electronics a subsidiary of Phillips came out with colour televisions. They advertised the colour TVS as Phillips Colour TVs. After a complaint was made they started advertising as Peico Electronics a subsidiary of Phillips.

Sony granted Collaboration rights for Orson India to manufacturer Black and white sets television sets. Orson made Colour TVs and sold them under the name of Sony-Orson. A complaint rectified this practice of Orson India. (End of part 1, continued next Friday 21st May 2010)